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Bangsamoro and Lumad activists slam martial law in Mindanao

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Leading Moro and Lumad activists slammed human rights violations on the 11th day of the Duterte government’s martial law in Mindanao.

In a forum in Quezon City with several church representatives, the activists said military rule on their island is giving rise to many abuses from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The abuses range from harassment to food blockades of civilian communities, the leaders said.

While the groups are against the terrorist Maute group, they urge the Duterte government to lift its martial law declaration over the entire Mindanao region.

They held a noise barrage along EDSA after the forum. (Videography by Ivan Dexter Tolentino and Esther Anne Cabrillas / Editing by Jo Maline D. Mamangun)

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Mindanao activists protest Duterte’s martial law in Mindanao

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Bangsamoro and Lumad activists led a protest action in Camp Aguinaldo after the Rodrigo Duterte government declared martial law in Mindanao.

The protesters said incidents of human rights violations have increased immediately after the May 23 declaration while paramilitary forces with outstanding warrants of arrests are brazenly coming out in the open in the company of the very state units tasked to arrest them. (Videography by Ivan Dexter Tolentino and Esther Anne Cabrillas / Editing by Jo Maline D. Mamangun)

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Manobos receive threat after peace talks termination

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MALAYBALAY CITY, Bukidnon—Instead of being given rice, hungry Tigwahanon Manobos have been threatened with massacre should they push through with their planned camp out in front of San Fernando, Bukidnon’s town hall.

“Huwag mong gawin sa akin iyan.  Alam mo namang wala nang peace talks.  Baka ma-massacre pa kayo,” San Fernando Mayor Levi Edma Sr. reportedly told the complaining Lumad. (Do not do that to me.  You know the peace talks have been terminated.  You might get massacred.)

Tigwahanon Manobo tribal chieftain Jimboy Mandagit said they met Edma last February 8 at the latter’s office to inquire about the food assistance sent them by the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD) last September.

Mandagit said they have been hungry since they returned to Sitio Tibugawan, Barangay Cawayan, San Fernando from their evacuation camp in Malaybalay City last December 12.

Mandagit and his tribe evacuated to the capital grounds last July 29 after a traditional wedding ceremony in their community was attacked by the paramilitary New Indigenous People’s Army (NIPAr) led by the fugitive Alde “Butsoy” Salusad killing a pregnant woman.

Who are Datu Jimboy Mandagit and Butsoy Salusad?

“The rice given us when we returned to our community has run out and we are really hard up.  We need three more months before we could harvest what we planted since we returned,” Mandagit said.

Of the more than 200 sacks of rice and other food items sent to them by DSWD secretary Judy Taguiwalo, Edma only gave them 37 sacks of rice and distributed the rest to San Fernando’s 24 barangays, the chieftain said.

Mayor Edma reportedly refused to give them more rice unless the Manobos could present a signed authorization from President Rodrigo Duterte.

Mandagit said the mayor instead gave 52 families the sum of PhP14,000.00 for them to buy equipment to clear their once-abandoned farms.

“I told the mayor that what we need is the more than 200 sacks of rice and other food items sent for us by secretary Taguiwalo,” Mandagit said.

When Mandagit said they might set up camp in front of the mayor’s office to convince him to give them the rice, the mayor then reportedly issued the threat.

“When he mentioned the massacre, I felt he was threatening us with another attack by Butchoy’s NIPAr,” Mandagit said.

“I was angry at the mayor’s heartlessness.  We only wanted to show him how desperate we are so that if we die of hunger in front of the municipal hall, at least he would know,” Mandagit said.

Mayor Edma was unavailable for comment as he was visiting the town’s rural health unit, his office assistant told Kodao.

Meanwhile, Taguiwalo said he would first inquire with DSWD’s Region 10 office before issuing a statement. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

UP CSWCD names Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay 2017 Gawad Tandang Sora honoree

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The College of Social Work and Community Development of UP Diliman named Manobo leader Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay as its third Gawad Tandang Sora recipient as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations this year.

Bigkay was cited for her leadership in the Indigenous People’s struggles for human rights and dignity. Read more

Woman warrior of Talaingod is 2017 Gawad Tandang Sora awardee

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BAI BIBYAON LIGKAYAN BIGKAY was early for the nine o’clock ceremony at the University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Social Work and Community Development (CSWCD) today. She sat at the front row of the hall, flanked by her two companions and interpreters, a Manobo Datu and a Catholic nun, patiently waiting for the people who are to present her the 2017 Gawad Tandang Sora.

There is little in her calm demeanor that showed she was aware the flurry of preparations in the entire hall was in her behalf, that the huge event was to hail her as the Melchora “Tandang Sora” Aquino of the current and troubled times.  Ligkayan Bigkay is just the third recipient of the award given by the CSWD only during momentous occasions. The first awardee, the brave academic Prof. Flora Lansang who fought against Martial Law, was honored during UP’s centennial celebrations in 2008.  The second awardee, Salve Basyang, tireless advocate of the rights and welfare of women and the elderly, was honored during the bicentenary celebrations of the birth of Tandang Sora in 2012.

There were fears the 92-year old third honoree (earlier reports of her age varied from 70 to more than a hundred) would not make it to the occasion because she had been ill.  Sr. Noemi Degala, SMSM, one of her companions on the trip and interpreter, explained the Bai is complaining of joint pains. “It is most probably brought about by her advanced age,” Sr. Noemi said. But Bai Ligkayan made it, garbed in the traditional red and black Manobo dress and resplendent with the ginibang bead necklace and bead wristband.  Unmarried, she still honors the Manobo tradition of wearing only two bead ornaments on her body, not even the tangkuro, exclusive to datus and chieftains like her. There were the inevitable requests for “selfies” with the guest of honor and she obliged, occasionally raising her clenched fist, like on the posters featuring her around the big venue and on the front cover of the ceremony programme.

When the program finally began, several short videos about the Lumad struggles were shown.  Bai Ligkayan remained quiet, even when the audience laughed and applauded the video of her berating North Cotabato Representative Nancy Catamco at their Haran, Davao City sanctuary.  The confrontation was the only time she was recorded livid, reducing the national government official to momentary and stunned submission as the Bibyaon threw the proffered water bottle at the congresswoman’s feet before stomping off.  But the usually reserved Bai grew animated when a music video was shown of Lumad children running, jumping and playing indigenous percussion instruments.  She slightly swayed her shoulders and nodded her head to the music, before returning to her calm demeanor.  She even declined an invitation to join the dance by invited artists from the College of Human Kinetics, gesturing to her aching right knee in refusal.

A cascade of tributes

When the time came to present the award, epithets echoed around the hall.  Gawad Tandang Sora Committee chairperson and Social Work and Community Development Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said Bai Ligkayan was chosen from among the nominees because she had the vision and courage to fight for her people.  “She is the mother of the Lumad,” Taguiwalo told the audience.  CSWD Dean Jocelyn Caragay said the awardee by her life and struggles enliven the college’s spirit for the underserved. UP Diliman Chancellor Michael Tan for his part explained his administration’s practice to host indigenous peoples in their annual “Lakbayan” to Metro Manila. “The indigenous peoples are the visiting professors of the university whenever they visit us. Bai Bibyaon is the Chancellor,” Tan said to laughter and applause by the audience.

Sr. Noemi’s introduction of the honoree was most accorded rapt attention by the audience. She said Bai Ligkayan is known by many names.

“By the Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao, she is called the ‘Woman Warrior of Talaingod’.  To women’s groups, she is the ‘Gabriela Silang of Mindanao’.  Today, she is to be honored as CSWCD’s ‘Tandang Sora’.  By the Philippine government she has been called a ‘rebel’.  By social workers of the previous (government) administrations, she was ‘a victim of a large-scale kidnapping disguised as internally-displaced’.  And by the paramilitary Alamara, ‘a coveted trophy for war’,” Sr. Noemi said.

The nun asked, “Who is this leader of the perennially-displaced Manobos of the Pantaron (mountain) Range to deserve this tribute? Who is this woman who dwells among the outcasts to come to Manila, the seat of political power and might?  Who is this literacy-challenged leader whose education is at ‘UP’–the University of Pantaron—to be feted by the University of the Philippines?”

Sr. Noemi revealed that Bigkay does not even have a birth certificate to reveal her true age and her parents’ names.  “The nameless is now being called names.  And what an honor indeed that she is named as today’s Tandang Sora, the revolutionary woman who embodied our recent centenary as a nation.  It was perhaps fortuitous that the moment Melchora Aquino died in 1919 was probably about the same decade that Bai Bibyaon was born,” she said.

The nun drew parallelisms why the elderly Manobo woman from the hinterlands of Davao del Norte traveled to the UP campus located just a few kilometers away from where Melchora Aquino succored the Katipunan wounded and within sight of the avenue named after the “grand old lady of the Philippine revolution.”

“Tandang Sora was the revolutionary woman of the national democratic revolution of the past. Bai Bibyaon is the revolutionary woman of today’s ongoing and raging national democratic revolution with a socialist perspective and socialist practice. This distinction given to Bai Bibyaon is only possible because she has stood as the leader for the nameless, the lowly, and the cast out. To students of history the award is an affirmation of the principle that the masses make history,” the Mindanaoan nun said.

Offers back her flower bouquet

The audience was on its feet by the time Sr. Noemi reverently pronounced Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay’s name to signify the award was about to be formally bestowed next.  The honoree, who only speaks and understands the Talaingod Manobo language, was the last to stand up, seemingly unsure that the loud applause was for and about her.  When she finally made her way onto the bedecked stage, she was uncertain on where to stand, looking at her companions, Sr. Noemi and fellow Manobo chieftain Datu Aylo Buntolan, as if asking why aren’t they joining her onstage.  They later did. True to character, Bai Ligkayan did not smile even once, most unusual of any honoree in any awarding ceremony.  The Bibyaon only had her iconic determined look, showing the reason why she is being honored–her resistance against all forms of abuse and exploitation against her people–is more a reason for struggle and less of celebration.

The text on the certificate was equally glowing.  It said CSWCD’s 2017 Gawad Tandang Sora was being given Bai Ligkayan for her fight for the Lumad’s rights and dignity.  Indeed, no one carries the Lumad struggle for human rights and self-determination with more dignity that Bigkay, more so when she raised her clenched fist for the assembled academics, students, officials, former CSWCD deans, staff and alumni of UP.  Her iconic salute was borne by her people’s history of struggle at the other UP in the highlands of southern Mindanao.

The awardee only had a short speech as a response to the honor just bestowed her.  Datu Aylo’s translation from Manobo to Visayan and Sr. Noemi’s translation from Visayan to English took more time.  The awardee first remarked on her long name, which refers not only to her person but her people’s culture.  She explained that her first name is “Ligkayan” and her family name is “Bigkay”.  “Bai” is a dignified honorific to Mindanao women of stature while “Bibyaon” is her title by acclamation as her tribe’s chieftain, forced to lead when their Datus have died defending their land and people by government forces in the service of mining and logging interests decades ago. She is the Talaingod Manobo Bai and Bibyaon, who to this day leads her people against the same forces of injustice and death.

Ligkayan Bigkay thanked the CSWCD for the recognition of her contributions to her people’s struggles for self-determination.  In the second part of her speech, the oldest person in the hall addressed herself to the youth and students present.  She called on them to help the indigenous peoples defend the environment and the future as well as to contribute to the poor people’s struggles for social justice and liberation in the countryside.

Sr. Noemi struggled to capture and convey the depth of Bai’s words and admitted failure.  “Let my deep sigh represent the depth of what she said,” the missionary nun said.  She revealed that Bai Ligkayan is in fact being hunted by the military at the Pantaron Range exactly for the reasons that she is feted by the country’s premiere university.

After her speech, Ligkayan Bigkay went on showing the audience what her greatness was all about. When asked to pose for photos with her bouquet of flowers she did not want the moment to be all her own, just as she refused all the accolades given her in the past be about her alone.  She reached out and took the hands of a person who always welcomed them on campus, their ally, the surprised Chancellor Tan, who was seated nearby.

“I was touched by the gesture.  I believe she sees me either as a son or a fellow elderly.  But it also means we are very good friends,” Tan said.

Earlier, when she stepped away from the podium and was being escorted back to her seat, the bouquet of flowers earlier given her was put back on her arms.  She looked at them briefly and then offered it to Secretary Taguiwalo, a gesture that could only mean she is sharing the adulation being showered her with a kindred soul, a comrade, a fellow woman warrior. But Taguiwalo had to decline.

It was Taguiwalo who voiced how the audience felt.  “The truth is, by receiving the award, Bai Bibyaon is bestowing us honor as a college,” Taguiwalo said. # (Report and photos by Raymund B. Villanueva)

 

 

Medical mission threatened by Alamara on their way back to Davao City

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BELEAGUERED participants of the 31-member National Medical and Solidarity Mission to Talaingod, Davao del Norte province are currently on their way back to Davao City after being stranded due to threats by the notorious paramilitary group Alamara yesterday.

Save Our Schools Network spokesperson and mission participant Rius Valle said on his Facebook page that the remaining members of their mission stranded in Sitio Nasilaban in Barangay Palma Gil have been fetched by Talaingod Councilor Alfredo Dao-an who escorted them to the town center.

The mission was forced to spend Sunday night at Nasilaban after the Alamara led by Joven Salangani threatened hired motorcycle drivers and ordered them not to fetch mission members.

“Do not fetch them or you will be hurt,” Salangani told the drivers, the mission’s alert said yesterday.

Valle said Salangani is a dangerous fugitive, accused of killing 15-year old Salugpongan School student Alibando Tingkas last January 2016.

“I wonder why he is still at large,” Valle said.

The Alamara was reported to have been created and trained by the 60th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army.

Mission participants and members of the rescue team from UP Mindanao filed a blotter report with the Municipal Police Station upon reaching Talaingod town proper, Valle reported.

Cholera epidemic

Volunteer medical professionals, social workers, teachers and students from the University of the Philippines-Mindanao as well as representatives of people’s organizations and government agencies conducted the medical and solidarity mission to investigate a cholera epidemic that victimized the Lumad community in the area since November.

Twenty-seven were reported to have died from the epidemic.

The mission delivered medical services to around 2,000 families in the area, participated by personnel from the Fr. Fausto Tentorio Foundation, Council for Health and Development, Redemptorist Church-Baclaran, Mindanao Foundation for Medical Disaster Prepared and Response, Davao Medical School Foundation students, Family Planning Organization of the Philippines-Kidapawan and the Association of Pre-Medical Students of UP-Mindanao.

The mission also conducted a relief operation with the support of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Salugpongan Learning Center, PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organization, Department of Social Work and Development, the Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives, Holy Cross of Davao College students and Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).

The mission a held a children’s activity as well, facilitated by the Children’s Rehabilitation Center, SOS, UP Mindanao Anthropology students, and the National Youth Commission.

Valle thanked Sitio Nasilaban leaders and residents, KMU members and Salugpongan students who provided security overnight as well as government officials and concerned groups who facilitated their extraction from the area.

The mission is expected to hold a press conference upon reaching Davao City later today. (Raymund B. Villanueva/Featured photo by Rius Valle-Save Our Schools Network)

 

 

Karapatan: Attacks to sabotage talks?

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ROME, Italy—The death of two activists and a New People’s Army (NPA) fighter in the Philippines since the ongoing round of formal talks began last January 19 may be the work of peace saboteurs, a human rights group said.

“Are these attacks efforts to sabotage the peace talks?” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay asked in reaction to the killing of peasant leader Alexander Ceballos in Murcia, Negros Occidental and Veronico Lapsay Delamente in Claver, Surigao del Norte last January 20 as well as the military operation that killed an NPA fighter in Makilala, North Cotabato last January 21.

“The killing of Ceballos and Delamente are cases of human rights violations while the military operation in Makilala is a violation of the reciprocal ceasefire agreements,” Palabay said.

Ceballos, a leader of the National Federation of Sugar Workers, was gunned down in his home in Barangay Pandan Silos, Murcia, Negros Occidental by a masked goon reportedly in the employ of former Don Salvador Benedicto town mayor Nehemias dela Cruz.

Delamente, a Mamanwa leader and member of Kahugpungan sa Lumadnong mga Organisasyon (Kasalo), was shot by unknown assailants in Punta Naga, Barangay Cagdianao and later died at a Surigao City hospital. He previously reported receiving death threats because of his anti-mining activities, Kasalo said.

Delamente was also the Katribu Party provincial coordinator since 2010.

In Makilala, 39th Infantry Battallion soldiers of the Philippine Army pursued an NPA unit in Barangay Biangan that resulted in an hour long gunfight and the death of a Red fighter, 33-year old Rojet Ranara.

Eight soldiers were also killed, NPA-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command Spokesperson Rigoberto Sanchez said.

“The war dogs of the 39th IB and the entire AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) cannot wash their hands clean of this flagrant violation of their own ceasefire. Sitio Lokatong in Barangay Biangan is a remote area that their presence can only mean an offensive operation against the NPA,” Sanchez said.

“They fool no one by claiming that their combat operation was merely in response to reports by local authorities of the presence of lawless groups, for the entire day, they actively maneuvered to engage the evading unit of the NPA,” he added.

Sanchez said the Rodrigo Duterte government should know it is the insincerity of the AFP that is the biggest impediment to the quest for just and lasting peace.

Palabay said the killings and the military operations are attacks on the ongoing peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

“Is the AFP laying the ground for further human rights violations akin to those committed under Oplan Bayanihan? Its Oplan Kapayapaan in its first three weeks is nothing but the same counter-insurgency program that unleashes war against the people and fomenting un-peace,” Palabay said.

Asked for comment, GRP Negotiating Panel chairperson Silvestre Bello III said they still have to receive an official notice from the NDFP.

“We cannot turn a deaf ear to these reports, but such incidents should not negatively affect the peace process,” Bello said.

“In fact, such incidents should compel both parties to accelerate the peace talks to its logical conclusion for a just and lasting peace,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva/Featured image by Breakaway Media)

Caring and dying for their land

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(Datu Jimboy singing)

This was not a party, more so a karaoke party that Filipinos are known for.  The song was not about love or any other ordinary ditty. The venue was not in a bar nor a concert hall and the singer is not a pop star.

The occassion was a solidarity event among the Lumad, the indigenous peoples groups in Mindanao.  The song was about the Lumad’s struggle to defend their land from unrelenting militarization and encroachment by mining companies.  The venue was in an evacuation center where 54 families are currently living in tents and where children are pounded by rain and cold weather.  The singer is a warrior chieftain who leads his people’s struggle for self determination and just peace. Read more

National minorities vow to continue fight for self determination

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THE indigenous and Moro peoples will never be stopped in their struggle for self-determination, national minority groups said as they wind down their Pambansang Lakbayan ng mga Pambansang Minorya 2016 at a rally in Mendiola last October 21.

Two days after the brutal police dispersal in front of the United States Embassy in Manila, thousands of Lakbayan participants said they will go back to their communities and continue their fight for self-determination and other human rights.

“We will not be stopped by state violence and imperialism,” Josephine Pagalan, a Lumad Manobo said.

“We Lumad have developed our communities and founded our schools in the face of the worst kinds of discrimination. This is proof that the national minorities are more than capable of relying on themselves,” Pagalan said.

Pagalan added their our progressive initiatives are directly attacked by a “rotten, fascist social system.”

“But we continue to fight, because our struggle for self-determination is justified, she said.

Why they travelled to Manila

The national minorities addressed the many questions about their struggle and why they travelled to Metro Manila as part of the Lakbayan.

“Our struggle is for our right to self-determination, which is strongly tied to the anti-imperialist struggle of the Filipino masses. It is our right to freely determine our political wellbeing and freely pursue our socioeconomic development at our own pace,” Windel Bulingit, spokesperson for Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance, said.

“It is a struggle we can win only if the Philippine society achieves true progress, when the rule of US imperialism is brought to an end,” Bulingit said.

“All of us who took part in the Lakbayan also call for an independent foreign policy,” added Piya Macliing Malayao, spokesperson for Sandugo.

“The national minorities have a lot of experience with foreign powers and we can say that they, led by US imperialism, have brought nothing but harm, not just to us, but to all Filipinos,” Malayao said.

“Foreign intervention only brings mass landgrabbing and environmental destruction thanks to destructive mining and energy corporations and plantations. There are also US military bases that destroy our communities and violate our rights – and our own military is, unfortunately, taking a page from them. There have been too many massacres of our brethren by the US military via the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” Malayao added.

“The violations against us do not appear enough in the mainstream media,  nor in social media,” Bulingit added. “That is why we are here to bring our issues to the people in the city, to the seat of power.”

Post-brutality

The protesters also condemned the excessively violent dispersal of their protests in front of Camp Aguinaldo and the US embassy.

The national minorities held a protest in front of Camp Aguinaldo last October 18, where their peaceful condemnation of the military presence in their communities was met with dispersal with water cannons.

Their protest in front of the US embassy last October 19 was met with worse violence.

As the rally was ending, Col. Marcelino Pedrozo of the Manila Police District arrived and ordered the arrest and dispersal of the rally to save face with the embassy..

The PNP proceeded to violently push the protesters back while a police mobile unit driven by PO3 Franklin Kho ran over rallyists, including Malayao.

They proceeded to violently harrass and pursue protesters, medics, mediamen and bystanders filming the events.

At least 50 were injured while 29 were arrested.

“What the US embassy and their puppets, the PNP, did to us was not right. That is not the work of policemen. That was the work of terrorists. Do they think that our status as national minorities makes such violence ok?” Bulingit said. ”

“The Philippines is for Filipinos. The PNP must serve the Philippines and not foreign powers,” Bulingit added.

Einstein Recedes, secretary-general of Anakbayan, defended the protesters.

“There are those who falsely believe that we have been paid,” he said. “That is nothing but vicious imperialist propaganda spread by the PNP. None of us were paid to protest and hold rallies because our principles do not have a price.” # (Abril Layad B. Ayroso)

Victims of violent dispersal at US embassy demand justice

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PROGRESSIVE organizations demanded justice for the victims of the brutal police dispersal of protesting indigenous peoples in front of the United States Embassy in Manila Wednesday morning (October 19).

In a press conference held last October 20 at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, the groups called on President Rodrigo Duterte and Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa to take action and punish Manila Police District officers for their violence against the victims.

According to Makabayan vice chairperson Neri Colmenares, Senior Superintendent Marcelino Pedrozo and PO3 Franklin Kho as well as other MPD personnel are guilty of violating Batas Pambansa (BP) 880 and of attempted murder.

“BP880 is about illegal assembly.  But there is nothing in it that allows the use of brutal methods. Does a group not having a permit make it alright to violently disperse them?” Colmenares asked.

“That kind of behavior is illegal, especially with the way they manhandled medics, minors and (members of the) media. The Manila police are clearly guilty of violating the same law they are trying to use against the rallyists,” Colmenares said.

Colmenares added, “BP880 states that you cannot file a case against a participant of a rally. You can do so against a leader, but not a simple participant like how they tried with this protest.”

“The fact that there was premeditation, superior strength and even treachery in play also means we can also charge them with attempted murder – at the very least,” Colmenares said.

The Makabayan bloc has filed a resolution to investigate the incident and condemning the police force for the violence. Progressive groups also call for accountability and firing of the policemen involved.

Police brutality

The protest was about to conclude when Pedrozo ordered the dispersal of the rally and the arrest of its participants, in violation of the agreement between the police and the ralyists before his arrival.

The police then fired teargas and began clubbing the demonstrators.

A police mobile unit, driven by Kho, ran over rallyists several times.

Police officers then proceeded to violently pursue, harass and arrest demonstrators, medics, media personnel and even bystanders filming the events.

At least 50 were injured, 18 of whom needed hospitalization.  At least 20 were arrested, including five medics, two minors and one media practitioner.

The arrested were released after at least three hours at MPD Precinct 5 along United Nations Avenue.

PNP’s lies

The PNP claimed that the violence was unintended, the protesters did not have a permit and who incited the violence.

PO3 Kho, for his part, said he did not intentionally run over the protesters whom he accused of trying to steal the police vehicle.

Their victims, however, presented video footage from various media outfits which they said showed Kho’s criminal intent to maim or kill as well as of Pedrozo ordering the dispersal and arrests for the MPD to save face with the US embassy.

According to Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes, there was no provocation from their side.

“We were down to our final speaker, but Pedrozo showed up and said that the police had shamed the US embassy, that the rally must be dispersed and that there must be arrests,” Reyes said.

“There were even policemen who hesitated to act because they understood that violence was senseless as the protest was peaceful and ending anyway. They were not provoked. They attacked first under Pedrozo’s orders,” Reyes said.

Reyes said they believe there was no need for a permit to protest.

“President Duterte has been fine with it all this time. Besides, we had been protesting for over an hour by the time they began their assault,” he said.

Colmenares added that the videos showed that the police violence was premeditated.

“In the videos, Pedrozo clearly ordered to disperse the rally, with or without provocation, because they would apparently shame themselves with the US embassy by allowing the rally to go for so long,” he said.

“Is Pedrozo ashamed, then, of President Duterte for condemning the US, telling Obama to go to hell, pursuing a strong foreign independent foreign policy?” Colmenares asked.

Why protest?

Majority of the protesters were indigenous peoples and Moro participants of the ongoing Lakbayan ng Pambansang Minorya 2016 who travelled to Manila to demand for respect of their right to self-determination over their ancestral domains and culture.

They were joined by progressive organizations led by Bayan as they also called for the immediate pullout of US military forces and corporate interests from their lands, as well as to express support for president Rodrigo Duterte’s call for an independent foreign policy.

“We have experienced the imperialism of the US, the massacres of our people and those who fight for us. This is why we were at the US embassy yesterday,” said Piya Macliing Malayao, spokesperson for the newly-formed indigenous peoples alliance Sandugo, said.

“We have been dishonored and brought to poverty by the control and meddling of the US in our areas,” Malayao, who was among those run over by Kho, added.

“We already face brutality and violence in our communities. Why must we be confronted with violence in the city as well, when we were only asserting our rights?” she lamented. # (Abril Layad B. Ayroso)